Decisions, Decisions
by DaughteroftheOneTrueKing
Summary: Madden finds out some extremely distressing information


**After a short hiatus from writing since I had surgery, I have returned! I'll be attempting to write more stuff if I get the chance. This is round eight of QLFC. This is the Korean Wave. I personally never joined the hype, but we've got good prompts this round so I'm happy. I'm still Wasps captain, and the prompt is to write about someone leaving something behind for a character to deal with. I hope this is good and that you all enjoy it.**

 **Word Count: 1225**

As long as she could remember, Madden had always thought her life would chug along like the Hogwarts Express. There would be nothing of particular intrigue going on, but it would be safe and comfortable. One evening, that whole idea completely changed.

"You're Madden, right?" the Ravenclaw prefect asked her, sitting down on the other side of the common room table Madden had been working at, trying to get a potions assignment finished.

"Yes," I answer, writing a couple more words on the essay. "What is it?"

"Professor Flitwick would like to see you in his office," Hayle informed her. "I just saw him."

Madden didn't feel like quitting just then, but she put the period on the sentence she had been writing, and stuck the quill back in the inkpot.

"All right," she said. "I'm probably not going to finish that essay tonight anyway."

Madden dropped her things off in her dormitory and then headed for the Charms corridor, where Flitwick's office was.

Madden arrived a few minutes later. She had no idea what Flitwick could want. She always had decent grades, and she never broke any rules or got in any fights. She was what her friends called "uptight". Madden preferred "dedicated".

"Come in, Miss Solis," She heard the short professor say when she knocked. She entered and to her concern, Flitwick has a very somber expression.

"Who is this," she asked, gesturing to the second party in the room, a goblin. It was strange to see a goblin outside of Gringotts, but Madden was trying to act normally. "You're all acting like someone's dog just died."

"This is Imug," Professor Flitwick introduces. "He is in charge of your school trust vault at Gringotts."

"I have also been named the executor of your parents will through… a set of circumstances," Imug says, pulling a small paper out of his pocket.

"Will…" Madden murmured. "That means…" It was slowly sinking in. If an executor had come to see her, that meant that her parents were dead. She felt like the room was spinning, though she knew it wasn't. Her tears stung with tears, and she couldn't be bothered to wipe them away just then. How could she be alone in the world? Her parents had always seemed invincible to her, it seemed so impossible that they were just… gone. Her stomach twisted at the thought that she would never see her mother's kind gray eyes, or hear her father's hearty laugh.

"I'm afraid so, Miss Solis," Flitwick said, placing his hand comfortingly on her shoulder. To her, it was little comfort.

Barely audible, she managed to say, "When did it happen? How?" It was all she could manage.

"Madden, we only just found out," Flitwick says. "It was about two days ago. A collision in a Muggle automobile."

"According to your parents will," Imug says, "You are their sole beneficiary. They left you everything. You have some decisions to make. You can either have the money and personal items, which is quite a bit, converted to Galleons, Sickles, and Knuts and placed into a more permanent vault for your use after school, and sell the properties in your parents name as well. Your second option is to leave the three estates be and have the personal items taken to your school vault and have the money placed into a Muggle bank account, which will be inaccessible until such time as you turn eighteen."

"I want the personal items and money and stuff taken to a separate vault," Madden decided, trying to keep tears back. The decision was difficult to make, knowing that it is because of her parents death that it was necessary. She didn't want to give up the reminders of her parents, the only things she had left of them, but she also didn't want to be constantly reminded of the memories that all these things were sure to bring about. She felt as though she were walking downstairs and missed a step. She was falling, and it was difficult to focus long enough to get balanced. "You can convert the money to wizard money if you need to. Leave the houses alone."

"Very good," Imug says, either ignoring or not caring about her tears of anguish. "Your parents also left you this." He pulls out a letter. It looks almost new, definitely not very old.

"A letter?" What would they need to tell her that constituted a letter? She prepared to feel the emotions the letter was sure to bring, and started reading it.

 _Dearest Madden,_

 _We know that it hasn't always been easy for us to cope with your magic over the years, especially with you being gone for most of the year. As such, we have never gotten a chance to tell you the truth. The truth… about who you are._

 _Madden, you were adopted. I know this is a shock, but know that we still love you, even when we can't tell you anymore. When we found out what you were, your father and I decided to find out who your real parents were._

 _We found out that you are related to the Greengrass family. I can only hope that when they realize you are theirs, they love you as much as we do._

 _We took the liberty also of meeting with your real parents. Your mother, Alana, seems wonderful. A truly wonderful lady. We did not get to meet her husband, but they have two other daughters who seemed like decent girls._

 _It is our wish that should we perish, you will go to them until you are of age._

 _We hope you know that we still love you, as long as the sun and moon endure._

 _We love you so much,_

 _Mom and Dad_

Madden's eyes stung with fresh tears, but these were tears of surprise and anger. She was adopted? How could that be? She didn't particularly look like her parents, but she didn't _not_ look like them either. Why had they never told her? How could she be related to the Greengrass family? They were an extremely prominent Death Eater family from the first war, why would they give up a child that they could easily take care of, especially when they had two other daughters that they hadn't given up?

Finally, she spoke, blinking tears out of her face and folding up the letter. "So, what now? I just go live with the Greengrasses?"

"That is up to you," Imug responded. "Your parents' will mentions that they are your parents, but there is no official request within it that requires you to live with them. You have a couple of choices, none of which are preferred by your parents. You can go to the Greengrasses, or if you decide, go to a home until a more permanent foster home can be found."

Madden realized that now, according to law, she was a ward of the state. They could send her anywhere if she didn't choose the other option.

"All right," Madden rubbed a fresh wave of tears from her eyes as she spoke. "I'll go to the Greengrasses. I suppose it's better than living at an orphanage."

She knew that this was better, but she didn't particularly like any of the choices. The decision was already made, however. She would become a Greengrass.


End file.
